


(The Sea) Set Me Free

by Iron_Eirlyssa (Eirlyssa)



Series: Eirlyssa's 2018 Bingo Fills [9]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Tony Stark, HYDRA is uncool, M/M, Merman Bucky, Merpeople AU, Mersharks Pietro and Wanda, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Octomer Tony, So mpreg, Some Fluff, Some Plot, That is male, There's also a seahorse mer, Though not a focus, Tony Stark Bingo 2018, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, WinterIron Bingo Adventure, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 08:03:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16991151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eirlyssa/pseuds/Iron_Eirlyssa
Summary: Tony had become somewhat known for rescuing other mers when they had been captured by humans. Still, when he was approached by a scrawny blond who asked him to save Bucky, he didn’t expect this.





	(The Sea) Set Me Free

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am again, with a Merpeople fic! For the Tony Stark Bingo 2018, this fills square S1 - prisoners/captives together, which leaves me with only one more square to fill for a bingo (and less than a week to do so). For the WinterIron Bingo Adventure, this fills squares B1 - mermaid, I5 - cecaelia/octomaid, and N5 - captivity. I hope you enjoy it!

Although he lived pretty far away from most cities and settlements, Tony was rather used to visitors. A recluse he might be, but he was somewhat known among the other mers, and there were often those who wanted to ask him for his help. Some of his previous successes also came by to check up on him sometimes, though none more than Rhodey and Pepper.

They weren’t here today, off having other things to do and people to bother. Instead, his visitor was a rather scrawny blond mer around his own age with a clenched jaw that told Tony he wouldn’t be taking ‘no’ for an answer.

Considering the reason for most of his visitors to be there, it wasn’t that rare a sight. The suspicion in his eyes was worse, and it made Tony wonder what had happened. Octomers were not at all common, most of them living in the shielded city ruled by King Howard, and the unfamiliarity sometimes made the other mers wonder about him and his motivations. Still, enough stories had spread that he had honestly expected a little less suspicion directed at him specifically.

“You’re Tony?” the other mer inquired. Tony tried his best not to take offense with the tone and nodded. “Is it true you’ve helped other mers escape from humans?”

“That’s true, yes.” It was how he had gotten famous, after all. After his own imprisonment, he’d found Rhodey and Pepper having been trapped by another branch of the same organization, and he’d helped the two of them escape. Since then, knowing what he knew now about humans and their tests, he had kept trying his best to do whatever he could to help out as many of his fellow mers as he could, using various methods.

“My friend, Bucky… He got caught, in their nets, and nothing I’ve tried has worked. But I heard about you, and Natasha says you’re good at helping others escape.” There was still suspicion in his eyes, and it was clear the mer would have preferred to be anywhere but here, but the fact that his friend needed his help was apparently enough to have him overcome whatever hesitation he had. “So, can you help him?”

Doing his best to let the suspicion slide off his back, Tony considered the situation. “Do you have any more information? Where was he taken, was there any sign to tell who might have taken him, how long has he been gone…”

“We were swimming near the Ridge by the Kane Fracture when they got him. They had a sign that looked a lot like an octopus,” was the reply, and the suspicion suddenly made a whole lot more sense.

Tony waved for the other mer to follow him inside the outer cave. He’d made sure that his home had been separated into two parts, giving him a rather spacious place for a mer, because he didn’t want anyone coming into what felt like his sanctuary. His outer cave also had some basic information that was useful when asking about whoever had managed to catch a mer, which was the current purpose of it. He led Scrawny over to the wall where he’d tried to collect as many human organisations involved in experimenting on mers.

“That one!” Right between AIM and the Ten Rings, the HYDRA sign still managed to stand out. “I can’t read it, but that was the sign they had.” Scrawny turned to him, blue eyes big. “Does that mean you can help Bucky?”

Most mers couldn’t read the way humans wrote, but Tony had always been a quick learner, and his own captivity had forced him to learn if he wanted to survive. “That means it was HYDRA, and that’s one lab I haven’t been able to get into yet,” he confessed. When it looked like Scrawny was about to fight him on it, he held up his hands in defense. “That doesn’t mean I won’t try to help, but it does mean I have to prepare carefully and it will take a while. HYDRA is _bad_.”

“All the more reason to get Bucky out of there sooner!”

He hated moments like these. Sometimes he could help almost instantly, but there were a few organisations that were a lot more difficult. HYDRA, in part because they usually operated elsewhere and in part because they were actually good at the bad things they did, he had never been able to infiltrate. “Look, I’m sorry, but I can’t rush into this and risk getting both Bucky and myself trapped in there without a way out. If I don’t do it right, there’s too great a risk of failing.”

A sneer appeared on the blond’s face. “I knew it. You help others when it’s easy, but it gets difficult and you’re backing out. Well, fine. I’ll get him out myself.”

Tony watched him go with a sigh. It happened sometimes, unfortunately. In some cases, they came back a few days later with a friend who had talked some sense into them. In other cases, he found them right alongside their friends in captivity once he managed to get in. He hated it, but he couldn’t really tell them not to go after their friends, especially if they felt he didn’t move quickly enough. Sadly, he’d never seen a case where they succeeded.

Over the next days, he did his research. If HYDRA had been close, even if it had been all the way over at the Ridge, that meant they were getting closer to the majority of the Atlantic settlements. Considering they were one of the more dangerous organisations, Tony had to be very careful to do this right. Hopefully, that way he could take them down from the inside, the way he had managed with some of them already.

On the sixth day after Scrawny’s visit, he came back. Another mer was with him, this one a gorgeous female with red hair that was a few shades darker than Pepper’s.

“We came to ask how things were going with finding Bucky,” she told him, after a look at the blond only had him looking between the two of them stubbornly. Clearly, he was still unimpressed with Tony and whatever he had heard about him.

Still, the redhead, despite being only marginally less rude than Scrawny, at least seemed somewhat respectful of what he had been trying to do. So Tony sighed and waved for the both of them to follow him to his outer cave. “From what I’ve been able to find so far, they usually operate from around the plains all the way out east and they branched out further west than usual this time. I’ve narrowed down the locations your friend could’ve been taken, but it would help to know when he was taken in order to make sure I can track the boat they took him on…”

“Why would that even matter?” Scrawny asked, not seeming to understand why Tony couldn’t magically procure a location. He looked in askance at Red, who rolled her eyes.

“Just tell him, Steve. The more information he has, the more he can help.”

Scrawny, apparently called Steve, clenched his jaw again. “Doesn’t sound like he’s helping a whole lot, Natasha. All I want is to go help Bucky, and he’s just sitting here, looking at maps instead of being out looking.”

“And how much has being ‘out looking’ helped so far?” she asked, sounding suspiciously like an older sister despite the fact that Tony could see no family resemblance. “You might not believe in the stories you’ve heard, but you have absolutely nothing to go off when looking for Bucky. The boat is gone, and even if you can recognize it again among all others, you have no idea where they would’ve gone on land from there. The only other option you have is getting yourself caught in the hope you’ll get taken to the same facility, and that’s exactly what Bucky was _trying to prevent_. So you either tell the Golden Avenger here everything you know or I will. But because I know less than you do, chances of Bucky getting saved are actually smaller if you don’t.”

This had the feeling of an argument they’d had before, and it left Tony feeling increasingly awkward. He knew being an octomer was cause for some suspicion from other mers, and his usual reclusiveness didn’t really help, but Steve seemed to take it to new extremes.

Still, he remained quiet as the two of them glared at one another. They really did act like siblings, and Tony wondered if Natasha was Bucky’s sister instead.

Eventually, Steve was the one who looked away first. Tony couldn’t blame him - he might be stubborn, but Natasha had a _very_ impressive glare. “Fine,” he conceded, sounding less than happy about it. “By now it would’ve been almost half a turn of the moon. It was that day where the water was restless, when all the kelp was getting stirred up.”

Tony remembered that day. Mostly, restless waters meant less risk of getting caught, considering most humans wouldn’t brave the storm raging above. HYDRA clearly had no such compunctions, and Tony wondered if they had figured out that mers were more active during those times.

“That does help with narrowing things down, thank you. I’ll be right back - feel free to grab some of the plankton if you’re hungry.”

With that, he swam into his inner cave. He felt secure knowing they would not be able to follow him even if they tried, considering the opening wouldn’t fit any non-octomer. Getting the human machines in there properly had required another opening, but it was more than worth it and still had its uses now.

Despite his dislike for them, Tony did have to admit humans were ingenious. Fortunately, he was even more so, and he had no problems turning their own inventions against them. Case in point: the computers he had in his inner cave. Most organisations worked on computers, and so far it seemed like none of them had expected a mer to use that against them. Which was their loss, considering it was how Tony had managed quite a few of his break-outs so far.

The internet was an eye-opener, a veritable treasure trove of information that left all of the sunken ships Tony loved to explore as a hatchling in its shadows. Once one knew how to use it, it was possible to find almost anything on there. Including shipping records.

At first, he had hoped it would be easy to track whatever ship it had been, but as it turned out, within the last moon cycle - where he had estimated Steve’s friend had been captured somehow - there had been a total of three HYDRA ships on this side of the Ridge. He hadn’t realized that they had been getting so close so often, and he wasn’t happy to find out. They were a bigger threat than all the others, for several reasons, and to have them come by regularly meant more danger to all of the mers around.

He had narrowed it down to two ships, but since those went to two completely different places to dock, it had been impossible to know more without Steve’s input. One of them had gone south, though the Mediterranean. It had long since been abandoned by most mers, humans too common there, but there were still research facilities near the water there.

It was the ship that had gone north that Tony ended up looking at. One of HYDRA’s bigger ships, the Red Skull’s records showed that it had picked up more mers than any other boat in history. In a little over half a moon’s cycle, it would be setting out again from the same port it was now anchored in. It left Tony enough time to get some plans prepared.

Talking to Steve and Natasha would probably be the worst part. He absolutely understood their desire to save their friend as quickly as possible. Everyone always did, after all. Everyone wanted him to get to the saving as quickly as possible, and he wished so much that he could. He hated to think of other mers out there, being hurt and experimented on, while he had to do his preparations and make sure everything was ready. But he’d seen, too often, what happened when mers rushed in. With very few exceptions, they got stuck as well, no way out.

That never made it easier. “Why can’t you just _do it_!? You’ve done this before, multiple times if you believe the stories, so why can’t you just go help Bucky as well?” Steve was clearly furious.

Fortunately, his friend was a bit more realistic, even if she was just as unhappy about the wait. “You’re sure there is no way to get to him quicker?”

“Very sure,” he admitted. “I wish there was, trust me, but I need to prepare to make sure I can get him out of there. If I rush in, chances are that neither of us will be coming back. Any others, I might be able to go within a few tides, but HYDRA knows what they’re doing when it comes to capturing and keeping mers. I _will_ go after him, I promise, but I can’t go any sooner.”

Steve huffed, swimming out with a final sneer in Tony’s direction. It didn’t take a whole lot of effort to tell he didn’t believe him. Natasha was slower to leave.

She looked Tony up and down, consideringly. “You’ll get him back?”

“If he’s still alive when I get there, I will get him back.” Her jaw clenched. No one ever wanted to hear that their loved ones might be dead, even though it had happened a few times. Tony still remembered Peter’s cries when he had to tell May that her mate had died trying to help their nephew escape.

Green eyes narrowed. “At least you’re honest about it. But if he dies because you took too long getting to him, don’t bother coming back here if you want to live.”

Then, she was gone. Tony sighed, sinking down to the ocean floor. Part of him really, really hated that he had become known for saving mers from captivity. It had become expected of him, like a duty of some sort, and he got it, honestly. They all just wanted their loved ones back, and he was the best way of making that happen. But every time he did a rescue, he took a risk. Sometimes, he didn’t actually have to get himself captured, so the risk wasn’t as big, but times like these he risked his own life and freedom, risked experiencing the trauma of being experimented on all over again.

Shaking his head, he retreated back into his inner cave, where he felt safe. The outside might have most of his security features, but he had made very sure no one else would be entering here. It was just him -

“Welcome back, sir.”

\- and Jarvis. “Glad to be back, J,” he sighed. “Let’s close it up for now. I think I’ve had enough interaction for today, and I have to get started on that facility’s security if I want to get that done on time.”

The tiny hole he’d swam through closed, making Tony relax immediately. Rather than immediately swim over to the improvised computers he’d put in the cavern, he headed over to Jarvis. He’d found the tiny dolphin during one of his rescue missions, dying and hopeless. Unable to leave him there, Tony had brought him along, only to discover that being out in the ocean again helped Jarvis enough that he wasn’t dying anymore.

Because he had been taken from his mother as a baby and experimented on since his birth, he would never be able to grow to the size he should be, and his body was barely able to sustain itself. His brain, however, had developed unreasonably much.

Together, they had found a way for Jarvis to feel alive despite his physical troubles. His connection to Tony’s computers made it so that he never needed to be bored, and he’d helped Tony out so often that he wasn’t sure he’d have been able to manage even half the rescues he had without Jarvis.

In the corner, the tank developed to help Jarvis as much as possible whirred comfortably. The tiny dolphin was floating, clean water flowing past him and soft bands keeping him from sinking down to the bottom. “Still good, J?” The two of them had been working together on completely transplanting Jarvis’ brain to the computers so he didn’t have to suffer anymore, but it was still a work in progress. Tony just wished he didn’t have to be in constant pain, tied to a body that would never be healthy.

“As always, sir,” the dolphin responded, sounding as though he were trying to comfort Tony. Despite everything he had been through, and despite the constant pain he was in, he never stopped trying to take care of the mer that had saved him.

“Just let me know when you get hungry.” He could get a bit lost in work sometimes, not even feeling his own need to feed, and having Jarvis help remind him of his own needs made sure he would actually make time for some food. Having the brilliant dolphin around meant he had finally gotten to the weight he should be, if a little on the lower side.

He threw himself into his research with abandon, wanting to make sure everything was as taken care of as possible. HYDRA was dangerous, and they knew what they were doing. That meant that Bucky was probably already being researched or experimented on, and even Tony might not be able to escape some of it before being able to do something. He tried not to think of that as much as possible, however, ignoring the memories that tried to distract him. Shivering in a corner would not help anyone, least of all him, much though he wanted to sometimes.

By the time Jarvis alerted him that it was time to get some food, he’d made enough progress that he thought he might actually be able to sleep without nightmares.

As it turned out, that was a bit of an idle hope, but over the next days he at least managed to get his preparations done in time for him to dare swim out, in the direction of the Ridge. In the direction of the Red Skull, where he could be experimented on and tortured and held forever if something went wrong…

Rhodey was the only one waving him off, Pepper having admitted freely that she wasn’t strong enough to watch him go every time he did this. For his part, Rhodey didn’t look any happier about it. He’d even offered to come along, even though both of them knew that the mer-eel wouldn’t be that much help and just be one more mer for Tony to worry about freeing. Still, he knew his friends both hated the fact that he kept going out, kept getting himself captured. He just couldn’t stop, knowing there were others out there, getting hurt.

The journey wasn’t the worst part. Tony was a strong mer, if a little on the skinny side, and being an octomer gave him advantages over other mers when it came to strength and flexibility both.

On expeditions like these, it was the memories that were the worst. The first time he’d been captured, he’d been unprepared. There had been warnings, of course, of mers being taken by humans. It was the reason King Howard had shielded his entire kingdom after all, consequences to the area be damned. Reading all of the humans’ theories about the Bermuda Triangle had actually made him laugh, despite everything. But for all of that, he hadn’t expected the barbed net that had caught him, or the humans behind the net.

Even now, the scars on his chest hurt on the colder days. The jewel they had inserted, blue unlike the orange in Jarvis’ forehead, glowed eerily. It was almost shameful to admit the glow had helped him wake up from nightmares, knowing he was alive.

Finding the Red Skull was actually not difficult. He’d looked into the projected sailing path, and then he only had to be sure to intercept it somewhere. Any mer he met along the way, he warned to stay away from the boat. It hardly made any sound as it cut through the water, making it difficult to detect unless one was looking for it, and Tony could see how so many mers were snuck up on.

In the end, he followed it for three tides before he’d gathered enough courage to let himself be captured in one of their nets.

The barbs still hurt, and he hated the humans for them as much as he ever had. They knew it would make the mers stop struggling to avoid the pain, therefore making them easier to catch, but Tony had heard of enough mers who were desperate enough to keep fighting anyway. He’d even seen a case of it, back when he had first been taken. Most of the time, they were used to have research done on what was left of them.

He made sure to keep the appropriate mix of fear and defiance on his face. It was difficult, torn as he was between rolling up into a shivering ball and fighting all of them to the death, but he was careful not to let either reaction win. He needed them to take him, and he needed to be as undamaged as possible.

Of course, they were humans, and it was never possible to avoid all damage. They poked and prodded and took samples of his blood and mucus, even cutting off a part of his tentacle. Despite knowing it would grow back, he cried out at the pain and invasiveness of it. Poseidon, but he _hated_ humans sometimes. He still had to meet more than a single one of them that didn’t act as though they could just do whatever they wanted to another living creature. And yes, he was aware they existed, had even experienced it that once, and it was entirely likely he kept meeting the wrong ones, but they always _hurt_ so much, and he felt he was allowed some unreasonable hatred.

The trip on the boat took both shorter and longer than he wanted it to. Shorter, because even with the ungraceful prodding of the sailors, it was preferable to being in a laboratory and having _scientists_ prod at him. Longer, because he knew any further moment trapped was another moment that he couldn’t do anything to help free anyone else.

When they transferred him out of the boat, he moved restlessly from one side of his small tank to the other. He tried to take everything in, knowing every piece of information could be of use.

From what he could see, the plans he had found for the building were fairly accurate. It was by the waterside, for easy access and so the boats would be able to get close to deliver their cargo. It looked to be both above water and under, with the part underneath presumably being where all of their mers were being kept. It looked like any other factory, and Tony wondered if there was a way to burn the entire thing to the ground when he escaped.

His tank was moved into a large, open area with lots of metal and some humans in white coats. There were no other mers, and nothing that indicated a long-term holding area. Tony clenched his jaws, attempting to mentally prepare himself for what was coming.

“ _What’s that light on its chest?_ ” The humans on the boat had spoken various languages, but he had known beforehand that he would probably encounter German in this base. He’d brushed up on it before heading out, somewhat glad it had been one of the top fifteen of human languages, if barely, that he had made sure to learn in order to be able to understand as many humans as possible. Why they had to have so many languages, he had no idea.

“ _No idea, but it’s stuck in there. The others said it looked like removing it would cause quite some damage, and they weren’t sure it would be able to recover, so they left it alone._ ”

“ _Get some scans while getting the rest of the samples. We might be able to do something with it, especially if it turns out he’s unable to withstand experiments._ ” Although he made sure to appear like he had no idea what was going on, Tony was listening carefully. It sounded like this was one of the laboratories that performed experiments on the mers they captured, which was far more dangerous in the short term than the ones who only wanted information. The latter ended up killing and dissecting their mers when there was no more information to be gained, but at least it usually took some time getting there. Hearing that these humans experimented instead… Well, Tony hoped he had gotten the planning right, and that they wouldn’t rush into things.

Taking the samples was painful, again, and he ended up screaming when they cut off another part of his tentacle, as well as one of his humanoid fingers. Still, he tried hard not to fight them too much - some resistance, but not enough that they felt they had to use sedatives to keep him under control. He needed to have full control of his faculties.

After they were done, they took him into an elevator that felt like it moved down, to the subaquatic level where he had expected any other mers to be held.

This room was bigger than the last one, and filled with tanks about four times the size of the one Tony was currently being held in. He didn’t have much time to look around yet, since they moved him to a small room at the side of one of the empty tanks. A machine of some sort attached itself to his tank, and he realized what was happening when he saw the dark hole of a tube through the reinforced glass above him.

He’d played around in whirlpools before, but this was nowhere near as fun. He wasn’t able to see anything through the sides as he was sucked up, and it took all of his strength not to scream. He _hated_ humans.

With a splash, he landed in his new tank, and his eyes moved quickly as he tried to assess it all. Reinforced glass sides, a reinforced glass top that extended most of the way, and machines off to one side - presumably to keep him supplied with fresh water and some food, or possibly to insert sedatives if he should try to escape. They were well-prepared, even for an octomer, and Tony wedged himself into the corner the furthest away from the machinery as he looked at the rest of the rooms.

There were cameras aimed at every enclosure, as he’d expected. They would not run the risk of one of their assets escaping without their notice. Plenty of machinery, too, though none of them _looked_ suspiciously like something to perform experiments with. Mostly, they seemed to be for the maintenance of the tanks.

Finally, he steeled himself to look at the other mers. There were a few, and Tony realized he’d never asked what Bucky actually looked like. It wasn’t like it mattered - if he went in, he’d be getting everyone out.

The closest to him was an older mer, so probably not Bucky. He didn’t look healthy, both his skin and his tail entirely washed out and black hair floating around him listlessly. There were no obvious signs of any experiments, no more than the regular ‘cut off some parts’, but it was obvious he didn’t have long to live anymore.

Another tank contained a red and black female mershark. Unlike Tony and the older male, she was tied by her wrists and neck with some sort of contraption that connected to the top of her tank. A red glow came off them, and Tony wondered if it was an ongoing experiment or the result of one. She looked absolutely miserable, keeping her eyes fixed on another tank as her hands clenched and unclenched.

In the other tank, another mershark rushed back and forth, frowning and bumping into the sides of his tank. He moved fast, even for one of his kind, his fins different shades of blue and his hair almost white. Every other turn, his eyes would go over to the female and he’d frown even more.

A male seahorse mer was stuck a little further away, brown and orange tail clenching around a pole that had been put in the middle of it. He was curled up into himself, reddish hair short and curly. If he’d been the victim of any experimenting, it wasn’t immediately obvious, though it was just as possible that was the exact reason he was curling up into himself.

Some tanks away, in a far corner, was a mer Tony estimated the most likely to be Bucky. He had dark brown hair down to his chin, was unfairly gorgeous and had a frown that would chase off a tsunami. Then he noticed the mer’s left arm, and regret pierced him. Clearly, he hadn’t been in time to prevent any experiments from happening. Rather than a mirror of his muscled right arm, the left arm appeared to have been turned more… amphibian. Netting spread between the long fingers, and even the arm itself looked longer than the right one, disproportionate to the rest of his body.

Not as many as he had feared, and yet… It was beyond likely that there had been more, and they hadn’t survived the mentioned testing. Tony’s hand clenched into a fist, hidden by the arms that had risen around him to cover him as much as possible.

He’d get them all out, even if it killed him.

“An octomer… that’s… a new one…” The mer across from him gasped out. Now that he was looking, Tony could see that even his eyes looked almost white, though clearly he could still see through them.

Careful of what the cameras would pick up, Tony slowly slid closer to the other’s tank. “New?” He wasn’t sure what to ask, what he could say, if HYDRA could even decipher their language. It wasn’t impossible - he’d figured human languages out quickly enough, and no doubt they’d had plenty of test subjects in here.

“Never… seen one… before…”

“In here?” Tony wondered at his story, all of their stories, but too much liveliness could catch HYDRA’s attention.

A raspy chuckle answered him. “Ever…”

Considering most of them remained hidden inside the Bermuda shielding of King Howard, that actually wasn’t too much of a surprise. Outside of there, Tony had never encountered another octomer either.

“So… how did they… manage to catch you…?”

Tony stomped down on the small, suspicious voice inside of him. He’d get all of them out, and until that time, he’d pretend the cameras could catch everything he did and said, and that HYDRA could understand it. “I just wanted to explore,” he told the other. Tony was young enough and, more importantly, he _looked_ young enough to get away with some more juvenile behaviors. “We never get to explore.”

“Must be… regretting that… right now…” The other mer - was he old, or did he just look old because everything about him was so pale? - gave him a commiserating smile. “Sorry… kid…”

“What is this place?” he asked, putting some amount of desperation in his voice. During their talk, he’d drifted closer to the other mer, as though looking for safety. He carefully kept his eyes off the camera, instead allowing them to search the room almost frantically.

Their talk had apparently caught the interest of the others as well. Even if they were still doing what they had been before, Tony could see that the speedy mershark’s swimming had slowed down some, though not completely, and what Tony presumed to be his mate or his sister seemed less tense. The one he hoped was Bucky was still glaring around the room, but he’d drifted closer to the edge of his tank. Even the seahorse mer was a little less curled into himself, head cocked to listen to their conversation.

“A human… research facility, though… I’m sure you… noticed that…” Tony kept quiet, hoping he would say more than that. Eventually, he did. “They take us… for experiments… They have… something… It glows… and then… it burns…”

Apparently, he felt that he had talked enough then, because he fell silent again. Tony looked at the others, but only probably-Bucky was willing to meet his eyes, a grim look on his face.

“Who…” He trailed off on purpose, playing up his nervousness. “What are your names?”

Probably-Bucky, to Tony’s relief, turned out to be actually Bucky. The pale mer was called Nikos, and told him that he was from the Mediterranean. It didn’t surprise him all that much that the two mersharks turned out to be siblings, called Wanda and Pietro, and they had been captured together. Finally, the seahorse mer was called Stefan, though Nikos was the one to tell him that, considering Stefan himself remained curled up and silent.

Some more asking around revealed that there had been many more coming through the facility, about half a dozen every full turn of the moon, but most did not survive the testing for long.

It made Tony nervous, wondering if he would be able to survive said testing for long enough to finish with his plan. There had to be some leeway in his plan, accounting for the speed of the boat and extenuating circumstances, but that did mean he would be stuck for about two or three days before things would be set in motion.

So when the humans came for him, he tried to stick to the corner of the enclosure as they sucked him back into the smaller tank. Something had to have been done to the walls for him to be unable to use his suckers properly on them, and when he got back to his tank - _he had to be able to come back_ \- he would look into it more closely. As it were, he made sure to keep track of their movements, noticing the exact moment they went into a different hallway than before. A shiver made him curl up into himself, trying to feel as safe as possible.

The room they ended up in was smaller, only capable of holding about two or three tanks. In the middle of the room, there was a stick of some kind, the end of it glowing softly.

Instantly, Tony could feel an ominous aura emanating from it. Trying not to panic, he moved himself to the far end of his tank in an attempt to stay as far away from it as possible. Whatever it was, however they had gotten it, whatever came from it could not be good.

“ _Get him in front of the scepter,_ ” the scientist who looked to be in charge told the two humans who had been moving his tank. Frantically, Tony looked around to see if there was a way out, but the tank was closed off except the tiny tube inserting some air into the water. Even as an octomer, he would not be able to escape through that.

When they had him in position, they all left the room, which was not at all reassuring. Steeling himself, Tony kept very quiet as he looked at the scepter. Little by little, it was starting to grow brighter. Breathing got more and more difficult, and pretty soon Tony was gasping.

Then, the pain hit.

He screamed, curling up into himself as far as he could, his tentacles covering all of him as though it would keep him any safer at all. His chest was burning, the stone that had been implanted there feeling as though it was burning him from the inside out, and for a few terrible moments, he was lost again to the moment they had wrenched him open to force it into his skin. It felt as though he would fall apart piece by piece, until only the stone in his chest would be floating in the water, glowing and covered with his blood.

It stopped.

For a few moments, it didn’t seem real. Curled up and shivering, Tony hesitantly took a few gasping breaths, but they were normal. Slightly painful, as they had been ever since the ‘surgery’, but _there_. Cautiously, he inspected himself, wondering if he would be finding some deformity or another. Nothing seemed changed, however, as far as he could feel. Perhaps it took a few sessions to take effect?

Despite knowing it could be useful to know more about the facility, about the people working there and other possible experiments they were running, he remained curled up as they took him back to the holding area. He didn’t have the strength, the pain and flashbacks having sapped all of his energy.

By the time he uncurled, he’d been back in his own tank for a while, and Nikos had called out to him a few times.

Nothing looked like it had changed with any of the others.

“You okay… kid…?” Nikos asked when he finally looked out from between his tentacles. He looked worried, pale eyes inspecting Tony.

He had to swallow a few times before managing to speak, though he would have liked to hide away and pretend none of this was happening. “I’m okay.” His voice was hoarse, probably due to his screaming. “All of you?”

Nikos looked around at the rest, Tony following his eyes. They were all looking over at the two of them, even Stefan, and most of them looked at least slightly worried. He blushed, tentacles moving closer again. Some attention, he could handle, but he was already feeling very vulnerable. He needed some time to himself - time he would not be getting, considering the tank was completely see-through and there were still cameras aimed at it.

“We’re all… good… Or as good… as it gets… I suppose…” Yeah, Tony could imagine. “They keep… coming… the first few days… see if… you’ll survive… After a while… they let off… a bit…”

“Hope that time is soon,” he sighed, shivering again.

“You survived… That’s a point… in your favor… Now to keep… living…”

That night, his sleep was restless. His muscles still hurt from tensing up, the water wasn’t right, and the danger of the environment didn’t help at all.

Every time he looked up, he noticed that Bucky was still awake and looking around warily. Their eyes met a few times, and Tony was usually the one looking away first. He didn’t hate Bucky for being here, but being captured always unsettled him. At least it helped to make sure his behavior made sense. He might have a way out, hopefully, but his mind wasn’t always convinced of that.

In the morning, they took Stefan away first. He appeared terrified, wide-eyed and begging them not to take him. It was difficult not to look away, but Tony almost felt like he owed it to the other not to. This was the reason he was here, captured and getting hurt and fighting his memories. To save the others from having to suffer even more than they already had, than they would if he decided to do nothing because he was too scared.

“He hasn’t… been here… that long, yet…” Nikos told him. To be fair, out of all of the others, Stefan looked the most normal still. Whatever was up with Wanda and Pietro, it didn’t seem to be a physical difference, but considering it required her to remain chained up…

He hesitated, but he knew it was better to be aware of every possibility. “How long does it usually take for any _changes_ to show up?” It couldn’t be more than a moon cycle, considering that’s about how long Bucky had been there. Then again, he technically wasn’t even sure how long Stefan had been there, either. If their experiments were more common at the start of captivity, changes would probably show up quicker.

Nikos hummed. “The longest… I have seen… was a few days… for the first… hints of change…”

A few days. So it was entirely possible that Tony would not, in fact, be able to avoid that fate. If he didn’t end up dying in the meantime, of course. He closed his eyes and hoped he would be able to see Jarvis and Rhodey and Pepper again.

Tony was after, and he was careful to look around on the way to the room. On the way back, he wasn’t likely to pick up on a lot, if it went the same as last time.

There were a few hallways that seemed to go different ways, and there were the stairways that the humans used. Tony himself could use them, being able to stay out of the water for short amounts of time, but none of the other mers would be able to. He hoped there was a way to open up the room they were in to the sea, because the chances of him being able to move all of their tanks without having the humans interfere in some way was small.

Far too soon, they were back in the room with the scepter. Tony looked at it with a fair amount of trepidation, but nothing was happening yet. It looked like the humans had to activate it somehow before it would react.

The pain was no less the second time, and Tony’s throat felt like it was burning on the way back. He knew he was here for a purpose, knew he should be doing this, but he could not help but regret letting himself be caught, just a little. More than anything else, he just hoped this would be worth it in the end, and that he’d be able to get into HYDRA’s programs fully. That way, one of the mers’ more dangerous predators could possibly be taken out.

Nothing had changed with the others, and Tony watched as they took Nikos this time. The older mer seemed almost resigned, though some bitterness was visible as well.

In the end, he forced himself to uncurl. As much as he wanted to remain curled up all day, hiding and hoping his entire body would stop aching, he needed to work on getting them all out of here, even if there wasn’t a lot he could do about it right now. Any further information he could gather might well be the deciding difference between a successful escape and having to remain here, captive, forever.

Unfortunately, his tank was one of the furthest away from the wall that bordered the sea, meaning there was no way he’d be able to look for structural weaknesses.

Bucky did see him looking, though. “You alright?” Tony couldn’t help but like his voice, a similar accent to Steve’s, but deeper. He wondered how much of that was from screaming, considering his own voice didn’t sound quite the same.

“Everything hurts,” he found himself confessing, though he was glad his voice at least remained steady.

“Everything?” It was Pietro who asked this time, stopping his incessant swimming for a little. Wanda, too, was looking at him, and Tony was startled to see they were red.

Their interest had him suspecting something wasn’t quite right, though. “Isn’t it supposed to?”

Pietro and Wanda looked at one another, seeming unsure as to whether they should answer. He was glad to find that Bucky had no such compunctions. “The only part that hurts for me is the arm. Rest of my body’s kinda tingly right after, most of the time, but only the arm hurts.”

“The same for me,” Pietro told him. “My tail hurt, everything else just itched.”

Wanda nodded, which Tony took to understand she had been the same as well. Even Stefan looked up a little, his arms still holding his stomach, though he didn’t say a word, either.

That was concerning. If only the parts that were changing hurt, then Tony was either in a lot of trouble, or HYDRA was. Considering they appeared rather prepared for any strange occurrences, as seen in Wanda’s tank, he thought it might be him. There was no telling what the cameras had picked up, after all, and since Tony had no idea what could happen to him - the only one obviously _different_ was Bucky, after all, since even Wanda and Nikos could theoretically be explained away by the amount of torture - he had no way to go about hiding it.

As time went on, it seemed as though Bucky looked at him more often. Tony tried not to be too noticeable, not wanting to draw too much attention from HYDRA by acting different from expected, but he knew it might be a bit much to ask for. Not to mention he knew from experience everyone reacted differently, regardless.

It was fairly visible with them as well. Wanda was quiet, and Tony often wondered if the restraints hurt her. Pietro was constantly on the move, eyes more often than not on his sister. Nikos was talkative, trying to talk to all of them, though from what Tony had seen he was the only one willing to indulge the other. Stefan was curled up constantly, flinching and shying away and never making eye contact with anyone. Bucky, in the corner, was a brooding, watchful presence that hardly ever talked. If he did, it was with brutal honesty, though Tony could tell there was kindness there. No doubt the fact that he expected to die in the HYDRA facility hadn’t helped his disposition, though.

Tony himself switched between all of the different coping methods. Right after returning, he was silent and withdrawn, whereas he became more curious as time went on. The only time he found himself moving restlessly was when others were taken out of the room, and even then he remained wary of drawing too much attention.

By the third day, it was a struggle not to fight what was going on in whatever way he could. He knew he had to be patient, however. Setting them off too early would make HYDRA more wary, which might ruin his plans and render all of his preparations useless. He could _not_ afford to get things wrong. Not here, not now, not when he was starting to care about the others and not when he’d promised them, if not out loud, that he would set them free again.

HYDRA had noticed something, however. For despite his body hurting all over every time, there was no obvious change to him. This time, before activating the scepter, the scientists remained close to his tank and made notes, discussing him out loud.

“ _No obvious mutations, yet. Do you think that means it does not work?_ ”

“ _It always has before, though. They either died within the first days, or they started showing signs of a mutation._ ”

They made some more notes. “ _Do you think it is the device in his chest is interfering somehow?_ ” He had to try very hard not to react to that, not to cover up the shining blue light more than he usually did in their presence. Oh Poseidon, what if they wanted to try to take it out?

“ _It does show some odd readings,_ ” the other scientist admitted, looking over at Tony consideringly. He focused on keeping his breathing steady.

“ _We try for two more days, and if there are no results then, we will try to see about taking it out,_ ” the first one finally decided, and the other nodded in agreement. Tony closed his eyes in relief, though he didn’t keep them closed for long. No sense in missing any suspicious movements, after all, even if he _had_ been spared that torture. If his calculations were right, tonight should be the night his plan would be activated by Jarvis, which meant he would be spared the torture in general.

Not the scepter’s power arcing through him, though, setting his nerves on fire and making him wish for unconsciousness. Tony screamed, knowing it wouldn’t help. It never did. He just couldn’t stop himself.

By the time it stopped, he was panting and crying, tentacles curled tightly around himself. He hated feeling this weak, hated HYDRA.

This needed to end, one way or the other. This constant pressure of being hunted, of being treated as less, of being _used_ by humans. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t tried before, with his access to the internet, but he’d been wary of drawing attention. But it wasn’t worth it. If it meant he would die, it would, but he’d set up somewhere he wouldn’t draw attention to other mers and he would find a way to take them all down - HYDRA, AIM, the Ten Rings, all of the smaller organisations that used mers as though they were nothing.

His mind kept repeating that thought, hatred building inside him. He would make it through this, and he would escape, and then he would _take them all down_.

As they rolled his tank back, however, he remembered the first time he had been captured. The Ten Rings had not been kind, had hurt him until he thought he would die and then hurt him some more until he wished to. But there had been Yinsen, and the reminder of the kind scientist was enough for him to calm down some.

Back in his bigger tank, he curled up into the corner, breathing deeply and hiding behind his tentacles. As a mer, Tony didn’t have the advantages actual octopuses had when it came to camouflaging himself, but the tentacles could at least hide hide his torso. It had always soothed him, ever since he’d been small, and it also helped him think. Curling one of his tentacles around so the gold was aimed inward, he focused on the feeling of his suckers on his humanoid arm and allowed it to calm him.

In theory, he knew not all humans were bad. He had the disadvantage of meeting a lot of the worse ones, but Yinsen had proven to him that, even in the most terrible of surroundings, there were actually good humans to be found. Similarly, Obie had proven to him that not all mers could be trusted, either.

Reminding himself of Yinsen, of what he had sacrificed in order to help Tony escape, was enough to ease him away from wanting to burn the human world down. He would find a way to stop organisations like HYDRA, but he would not sink to their level of thinking of others as _lesser_ just because they were different. Their level, and his father’s level as well. He’d promised Yinsen, had promised _himself_ , that he would be better than that.

Slowly pulling down his tentacles, he looked around at the rest of the room. Everyone was in there, still. He wondered if it was one of the humans’ arbitrary ‘off days’, where they didn’t do what they usually did. That would be good, actually - that should also mean there would be fewer people in the building once his plan started.

“How’re you?” To his astonishment, it was actually Bucky who asked. Considering he usually remained rather quiet, Tony hadn’t expected him to speak up.

“Alive.” His throat ached, voice rasping out painfully. It seemed as though the scepter got more painful every time they tried its effects on him. At that, he realized he was trembling all over, shivering as though he was cold. He wrapped all ten of his arms around himself, despite the fact that it wouldn’t help. It wasn’t the temperature that bothered him.

On the other side of the room, Bucky frowned more heavily than usual, but he didn’t comment further. Tony could feel his intense eyes on him, though, even as he looked away. Captivity was not a time to be developing crushes, especially on mers he wanted to be saving.

Waiting for the timer in his head to tick down was almost worse than the torture, if only because of the uncertainty of whether it would work. He’d done everything he could to prepare, and he knew Jarvis was brilliant enough to match him, but HYDRA was the biggest rescue attempt they had ever tried. Even in here, he’d only been able to get some impressions of the area around them, but no clear openings the way there had been other times. Tony had ideas to try, that would hopefully get them out before HYDRA could regain control, but even he couldn’t be sure they would work.

He knew he was more silent than usual that afternoon, only responding to Nikos with short, absent-minded replies. Hopefully, if HYDRA picked up on it, it would be attributed to his pain. Most of his time was spent floating around in the tank, apparently aimlessly, as he looked over the room and its possible options.

Eating was a struggle, both due to the pain and due to the fact that his stomach was twisting itself up with his anxiety. There was one chance to get them all out of there - if he missed it, all of them would most likely die in here.

Finally, it was around the right time. He sank down into a corner of his tank, muscles ready to spring into action the moment they had to. Off and on, he could still feel Bucky’s eyes on him, but he tried his best to ignore it. This was not a time to be distracted (though he found himself rather wishing it were. He felt he couldn’t be blamed for that, though - Bucky was gorgeous).

It started with a short flicker of the lights, no more than a few seconds. Tony straightened, alert and looking around. This was the moment.

Then, the lights turned off completely, and the humming of the machines around them stopped as well. The blinking red lights of the cameras were gone as well, which was Tony’s cue. He wasted no time at all moving over to the corner of his tank, one tentacle moving into the tube that supplied the fresh water and food. Another tentacle followed, and then his torso.

Somewhere near the end of the tube, he felt around for the edges. They were tight, sealed very well, but not made to withstand the pushing of his muscles. With a large splash, he landed on the floor beside the machine, grimacing a little at the roughness of the ground.

“Whoa, how did you do that?” Pietro sounded beyond impressed, and when Tony looked up, he noticed that all of the others were at the edges of their tanks, watching him with wide eyes.

Now that the first step was done, he could bring himself to smile. “Octopuses are masters of escaping.”

“You don’t… say…” Nikos gasped.

There wasn’t time for a long talk, though. He needed to figure out a way out for all of them, and quickly. Moving his way over to the far wall, he could see some structural weaknesses, but nothing that could be destroyed instantly. In ordinary circumstances, he’d quickly have patched together a bomb by pulling apart the machine beside his tank. Now, though…

Getting into Wanda’s tank was the easiest, especially since he couldn’t afford to break it and leave her without water. She’d still be able to breathe for a bit, but most mers couldn’t live through being too dry.

She was watching him with wide eyes when he finally managed to get the top removed far enough that he could slip in. “Telekinesis, right?” he asked her, even as he got a closer look at the cuffs around her wrists and neck. They were locked tightly, requiring both a key and a fingerprint. Tony narrowed his eyes at them.

“Yes?” Wanda replied hesitantly. “But I cannot use it with the cuffs, and they cannot be removed by anyone but the one scientist.”

Focusing, Tony moved his tentacles around and inside the cuffs, trying to figure out the exact shape… _There_. All three locks disengaged at the same time, falling away from the mershark. If possible, her red eyes grew even wider as she stared at him. “Masters of escaping,” he joked, before looking around to assess the situation. He could hear Wanda chuckle slightly. “Is it possible for you to blow a hole into that wall?” he asked her, pointing at the wall separating them all from the sea.

“I have not had a lot of practice,” she confessed. “If I focus, probably?”

“Alright, you get ready for that.” Tony gave her a reassuring smile. “That’s the only thing you have to do, just let me deal with the rest and wait for me to tell you to go, alright?”

When she nodded, he moved back out of her tank again. The tops were fairly heavy, and he didn’t think he’d be able to remove them completely, but he needed to detach them for the others to be able to get out of the tanks.

Considering he knew what he was doing after Wanda’s tank, it didn’t take him too long to wrench the others open slightly as well. Once they were actually in the water, they’d hopefully be able to get them off the rest of the way. Water always made things less heavy, after all, and although he wasn’t the strongest mer he knew, being an octomer meant he had some considerable strength.

None of the others spoke, though he noticed that both Bucky and Nikos were looking at him consideringly. Pietro was mostly restless, looking between Wanda and Tony and the wall that would hopefully be destroyed soon.

There were voices, approaching quickly.

“Alright, now,” Tony told Wanda, moving over to the door and stretching himself out over it. He might not be the strongest of mers, but humans were not a match for him.

He could feel them pushing against the door, cursing. Behind him, he could hear the explosion, shortly followed by the sound he was most hoping for - rushing water. Flattening himself against the door as much as possible, he prepared himself. There was another reason he hadn’t taken any of the others out of the tanks, after all, which was the rush of water and rubble that slammed the breath out of him and made him see stars for a few minutes. He had no doubt his back would have a few new scars after this.

The water level grew quickly, and by the time Tony felt he could breathe again, it was high enough that it nearly reached the ceiling. He moved away from the door, knowing there was no way the humans would be able to push it open with the pressure of the water behind it.

Fortunately, the others hadn’t remained passive either. Both Wanda and Bucky had pushed off the tops of their tanks, Wanda now moving for her brother’s and telling him not to break his arms trying to ram into it while Bucky headed over to Stefan’s tank. Tony moved over to Nikos’, who was watching him with a grin on his face. “Good job… kid…” He looked more lively than Tony had ever seen him, which honestly wasn’t surprising. What _was_ somewhat surprising was the way he glowed softly now that there were no lamps around.

Turning around, Tony saw they were all out of their tanks. “Awesome. Let’s go, everyone,” he told them, his relief obvious in his voice. They’d done it.

Of course, that couldn’t be all of it. The moment they all moved out into the open waters, bullets started piercing the water. Tony only just managed to avoid the first one, his tentacles moving everyone behind him and back to the broken wall.

“Damned HYDRA,” he cursed. “Down, as far as possible.”

He wasn’t exactly the most subtle mer, considering the red and gold of his tentacles. Probably the only one who stood out _more_ in the darkness was Nikos, who was still glowing softly. In order to make sure the others would be safe, he’d spread out his tentacles as far as they would go, trying to create somewhat of a shield for them.

One of the bullets pierced a tentacle, and he hissed softly. It was difficult to resist the instinct to curl up and hide, but he’d made a promise and he would be getting all of them out and to safety even if it killed him.

Soon, they were deep enough that they wouldn’t be visible at all from the surface, and the few bullets still shot after them moved slowly enough that they were easy to evade for even the slower Stefan and Nikos. Tony curled his tentacle close to him, inspecting the wound even as the rest of them kept him moving along with the others.

“They hit you?” Bucky’s voice came from beside him, startling him. The priority was to move as far away from HYDRA as possible, and Tony had no idea about the sea around them, which left him following the others. Surprisingly, Stefan appeared to be leading the way.

Turning back to Bucky, he shrugged. “Nothing vital. Just have to…” His fingers pressed into the wound, until he finally found where the bullet was stuck in the muscles. Gripping it tightly, he pulled it out in one quick move. “There. It should heal just fine, now.” It might give him one more scar, but his tentacles were used enough to regrowing that any scar tissue hardly showed on them. The humanoid parts had always been worse.

Bucky was frowning at him again, though Tony didn’t quite understand why. They were free now, shouldn’t he be happier? “Did you plan that?”

The frown almost made him consider lying. Considering the idea was to take Bucky back to Steve and Natasha, though, there was no way that would last anyway. “Your friends… or at least I think they were your friends, considering they never really did say. Steve and Natasha. They came by, told me what had happened.”

A multitude of emotions crossed Bucky’s face, though none of them lasted long enough to properly identify. “So… you _are_ that Tony.”

Becoming more well-known had helped him, and it had especially helped others find him when they needed assistance. But this was the first time he realized being famous could also have disadvantages, especially if other captive mers were to give him away upon recognizing him.

“Presumably, yes.” There wasn’t a whole lot to say to something like that.

“That means you knew, though. You knew how bad HYDRA is. Why even go in?” By now, the others were listening in as well, though they were still on the move and getting to deeper waters as they went.

Now Tony was the one frowning. “Because you needed help?”

“They could have _killed_ you in there. Why, in all the seas and oceans, would you risk your life voluntarily?” Part of him wanted to be unable to understand the incredulous tone of Bucky’s voice, wanted to be the kind of good person who would do it without any reason other than mers needing help and his being able to provide that help.

Unfortunately, the truth was both better and worse. “I got captured once, and I managed to get out. As an octomer, I actually have an easier time of that than most other mers.” He sighed. “I didn’t want to go hide again, where nothing could ever get me. I wasn’t the first, I wouldn’t be the last. But I realized I wanted to help others escape as well, realized that I wanted to stop this from happening as much as I could.”

Except he hadn’t stopped it as much as he could, had he? HYDRA was still out there, as were the others. He might be helping in short instances, might be helping individuals escape, but he hadn’t yet managed to stop _all of it_. Before he’d gotten there, countless mers had already been experimented on with the scepter and had died because of it. Even now, what had he really done? Five of them had gotten out, and then HYDRA would rebuild and find themselves new mers to experiment on.

He clenched his fist at his side.

By his side, Bucky remained quiet, looking contemplative. No one else said a thing either, just swimming. The speed Stefan had managed to set was more than Tony had been expecting, though he didn’t really have problems keeping up.

Nikos did, though. The further they swam, the more Tony could hear him panting. He swam up to the other, seeing the strain on his face. “Do you want me to help out?” he asked, hesitant to touch.

“If… it’s not… too much… of a… problem…” Nikos gasped. “I can’t… keep up…”

Taking one of his arms, Tony pulled him along. The water made it fairly smooth, and with eight tentacles, Tony was more than able to keep up with the others.

“So, question - where are we going?” Pietro asked after a while. He spent most of his time swimming alongside his sister, but it was clear how much faster than the rest of them he could move by the way he went exploring every once and a while, flashing by them so quickly Tony had trouble seeing him.

Stefan still hadn’t said a thing, body language defensive still, and it put all of them on edge.

Although he didn’t turn around, nor did he stop swimming, he did speak up. “My mate.” His voice was soft, and deeper than Tony would have expected now that he wasn’t screaming. It was silent for a little, all of them surprised. “I…” Stefan sounded hesitant now. “I was pregnant, when they captured me. They… were planning on using my young for experiments. I need to get back to her.”

The desperation was clear in his voice, and Tony understood the way he’d acted before a lot better now.

“Do you know where she is?” he ended up asking, when no one else said a thing. He might not like being in charge, but he could be if there was no one else.

“I hope so…” was all Stefan could manage, looking close to crying.

Making sure to keep his voice calm and steady, Tony tried to reassure him. “Even if she’s not there, we can always look for her. Don’t worry about it, just lead the way and we’ll follow.” He didn’t know enough about the mating habits of seahorse mers to know if it made sense that she would be waiting for him, or whether she would’ve gone off on her own. He knew octomers would move on after mating, leaving the mother to deal with the offspring, but most other mers were a little more loyal.

Not knowing how long it would take them to get there, Tony made sure to collect some food along the way, encouraging Bucky, Wanda and Pietro to do so as well. They all shared with Stefan and Nikos, though the former was completely unwilling to stop moving.

“I need to take a break.” It was Wanda who eventually gave in, though Tony could tell Nikos had already nodded off while he was being held. They had been swimming for a while now, and Tony could feel exhaustion creeping up, too. But he could also understand wanting to get back to a mate, especially when pregnant.

“I can’t stop.” Stefan sounded as though he was about to cry, desperation rising in his voice. “I’m too close, I need to get back to her.”

Wanda looked exhausted, and Nikos was already sleeping. Pietro still seemed to have some energy left, fortunately, and Bucky did a good job looking unaffected by any of it even though it couldn’t have been easy for him either. “How much longer?” Tony asked.

“Just… I know this area already, it’s just a little more, I can’t stop now,” Stefan pleaded. He didn’t look great, face pale and drawn.

“Pietro, can you pull Wanda along for a bit?” he asked the mershark, who nodded. “Alright then. A little more, we can do this.” He bit back his own exhaustion, promising himself that they would get some sleep as soon as they were in a safe place where others could potentially look out for them as they rested. Only a little more.

To his absolute relief, it really wasn’t that much longer until they came to what looked like a very spread-out settlement. Almost as though getting a new burst of energy, Stefan moved even faster, and the others followed him at a distance, unsure of their welcome.

“Emiliya!” Stefan cried out. The seahorse mer that came to greet him had an orange and yellow tail, close to matching the reddish blonde of her curly hair, and even without being close it was easy to see the utter relief on her face as she crashed into him, wrapping her tail around his waist and running her hands over him to check for injuries.

“You’re back! I was so worried, you were suddenly gone!” Tears were streaming down both of their faces as they embraced, and Tony looked away from them, feeling as though he were intruding.

In doing so, he met Bucky’s gaze, who smiled at him. Despite his exhaustion, he couldn’t help but smile back. Just for this, the torture had been worth it.

Their cries had woken up Nikos as well, who had a soft smile on his face. “Ah… Young love…”

Wanda and Pietro looked half asleep already, and Tony could feel his own exhaustion creeping up as well. Fortunately, Bucky was still aware enough to notice the seahorse mer swimming up behind them, which was why it didn’t startle Tony when she greeted them.

“I wish to thank you for bringing Stefan home safe. Emiliya has been… inconsolable, without him.” She looked and sounded like someone in charge, brown hair pulled up into a braid that circled her head and her soft pink and salmon tail decorated with tasteful golden jewelry. “My name is Katya - I am in charge of this settlement. Is there anything we can do to thank you for your help?”

“We’ve been more than happy to help out, even without reward,” Tony assured her, the others nodding along. “I will admit that we wouldn’t say no to a safe place to sleep, though.”

It didn’t take long before they were all shown into a cave-hut on the edge of the settlement. Two seahorse mers were nearby, carrying spears. “They will guard you while you rest. I hope the fact there is only one room will not prove to be a problem?” Katya informed them.

Quickly looking around at the others, Tony then shook his head. “I think we’ll be just fine together. Thank you very much for your hospitality.”

He didn’t even register her leaving, instead heading into the hut. It was clearly built for seahorse mers, ropes stretching from the ceiling to the floor. Tony soon spotted a corner that looked just small enough that he’d have to curl up tightly to fit in there, which looked absolutely perfect for him. Gently putting Nikos down on the floor, the way he’d seen the other sleep in the tank back at HYDRA, he then moved to the corner and curled himself into the smallest ball he could, reassured by the feeling of the rock surrounding him on so many sides. He didn’t even notice how the others were doing, he fell asleep so quickly.

When he woke up again, he wasn’t sure how long he had been out. He still felt somewhat tired, but he knew from previous experience that feeling wouldn’t end for a while still. Even after getting back to his own cave, he usually needed about a dozen tides to feel remotely safe and rested again.

Wanda and Pietro were still asleep, tangled together and weaving ever so slightly in the water. They might not have their shark counterparts’ weakness of being unable to breathe while not moving, but mersharks were still more comfortable having water in motion around them.

A little further away, Nikos was still down for the count as well, snoring softly enough that Tony hadn’t even noticed until he focused on the mer.

That only left Bucky, who was apparently awake and already looking at him. Tony’s muscles tensed up for a bit, startled, but Bucky smiled that small grin at him and he felt himself relaxing. “Hey,” he whispered, not wanting to wake up the others.

Bucky waved at him, before motioning at the entrance to the hut with his head. With a nod, Tony uncurled to follow him outside.

The settlement looked rather more alive than it had when they arrived, seahorse mers in many different colours floating around. They weren’t the fastest mers around, but they worked together better than any other kind, and it showed. The feeling of togetherness was something Tony had missed when he was younger, and he sometimes found himself jealous of the way others seemed so happy to be together when both of his parents (and most other octomers around - they were a rather solitary species) had left him on his own more often than not.

“Did you sleep well?” Bucky spoke up at his side, and Tony pulled himself away from his contemplation.

“Can’t remember much of it, to be honest.” It was a relief. Once he was less weary, he expected that his sleep would be filled with nightmares of captivity and pain.

“Same, mostly. Think we arrived not too long before moonrise and slept well through the night. Woke up when someone swam close to the hut, though,” Bucky told him with a shrug, grimacing when it moved his oddly shaped left arm.

Frowning, Tony looked at it more closely. “Does it still hurt?”

“Not hurt, but it ain’t comfortable. Feels strange.” It looked strange, too - muscular in a different way than his other arm was, and with longer fingers. There was a wound, or scarring, at the top that looked like a red star trying to burst out. There was a greyish tint to it that made it look even more unnatural. Everything seemed to be functioning as it should, though.

Assessing the state of his own body, Tony wasn’t surprised to find he was still hurting. In all fairness, he hadn’t ever really stopped hurting since the Ten Rings and the insertion of the gem in his chest. On the bright side, it seemed like his tentacle had already healed over his bullet wound, and his body had, over his time in captivity and their rush to safety, regenerated the finger and parts of tentacle that HYDRA had cut off him.

There still didn’t seem to be anything different about him, though. Perhaps the gem had actually interfered.

“So what’s the plan from here?” Bucky asked.

“Same as usual, I guess,” Tony shrugged. “I check with everyone, see if any of them need or want someone to escort them back home. Anyone who doesn’t usually goes off, and with the other ones I tend to discuss in which order we’re going places. I’m guessing Nikos could use some help getting back, at least, but you and the twins should be fine to be off on your own if you want. If not, like I said, we can work on planning a route to go, though you’d likely be last since you’re closest to my home.”

Bucky looked at him contemplatively. “How often do you do things like this, exactly?”

“Not as often as you might think. Since the first time, I’ve gotten better, and a lot of smaller organizations that catch mers are a lot easier to deal with. HYDRA is… probably the most difficult? I don’t usually have to go in myself, just get in their computer systems - the things they use to organize everything. Then I can do a lot from there, either getting them out altogether or just making it so I can get in from the outside, sneak them out, and be done.”

Those light eyes were rather intense, and Tony fought the urge to blush. Bucky might be attractive, but chances were he’d move on quickly enough once he was out of danger and back home. They usually did, after all.

“Good morning,” came Pietro’s voice from the hut. There was a hit of relief in his voice, presumably because they hadn’t left. “How are you?”

“Well enough,” Tony spoke, looking at Bucky for confirmation. The mer only shrugged, silent again, though he looked less angry than back at HYDRA. “Just discussing where to go from here.”

“Wanda and Nikos are awake too, if you wanted to discuss it now?” the mershark asked, already moving back through the entrance. Tony followed, as did Bucky.

Pietro quickly moved over to his sister, who was curled up by one of the walls and looking scared and very young. Not for the first time, Tony wondered how old the two of them were. Nikos was sitting up, but also leaning into the wall, and he didn’t look a lot better despite the fact that they were free now.

Everyone looked at him expectantly, so he straightened up to look a bit more like he knew what he was doing. “Alright, so I guess we’ll have to see what happens next. I’m not sure where you all have to go, but I’m okay with coming along if you need the company. If there’s multiple destinations, we’ll have to discuss what order we go in, but that shouldn’t be the biggest problem. So, if any of you don’t want to head out alone, feel free to let me know.”

As it turned out, most of them weren’t sure either. Nikos had been solitary for quite a few years before being captured, and he admitted that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to make it all the way back to the Mediterranean anyway. Pietro and Wanda had been with their parents - mersharks mostly lived in family groups. Their parents had been taken some moons before them, and they had been looking for them when they had been captured themselves. They still weren’t sure what had happened to their parents, or if they were even still alive, but they didn’t have anywhere to go.

Tony contemplated the information. “I could see if I can find out what happened to them,” he ended up suggesting, “but I’d have to be back in my own cave for that.”

“You could do that?” Both of them looked hopeful, and Tony hated to ruin it for them.

Still, it was better if they were prepared. “Considering how long it’s been… Chances are they won’t be alive anymore.” He grimaced when their faces fell. “I’ll look into it, I promise, and I’ll probably be able to find out what happened to them - who took them, where they were taken. But I can’t make any promises about whether they’re still alive or not.”

They nodded. His warning was understandable, and he didn’t doubt that they had somewhat expected as much anyway, but it was a terrible thing to have to hear regardless.

“I think… I will… ask Katya if… I could… stay…” Nikos told them. “If not… I would ask… if you could… help me… find a safe… place…” to die, he didn’t mention, but Tony heard it in his voice nonetheless. From the look on the others’ faces, so did they.

The twins were looking at one another, apparently communicating without actually saying a word, before turning back to Tony. “Would it be possible for us to come along with you?” Pietro asked. “Just… at least until you know something about our parents? Because we do not really have a place to go.”

It didn’t take him long to consider the question. “Certainly. There’s a few empty caves near mine that have been used by others when necessary - I’m sure you could stay in one of those for however long you would like.”

“We would not want to impose,” Wanda hesitantly told him.

“Really, you wouldn’t be. Most of the mers around stay a bit away from where I live, and the caves are mostly empty - there’s only a few that have lived there for longer than a few moons. It wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Why would they keep leaving?” Pietro asked, a frown on his face.

His hesitation made sense, of course. “They’re not bad caves, to be honest. Most mers just don’t much like being reminded of their captivity, which my proximity… does tend to do. There’s also mers coming by sometimes to ask me to help out. I know Pepper moved away because she couldn’t stand watching me leave, and May and Peter felt the same. Though you’re free to ask them about it, and whether there’s any other living spaces you could use if you’re uncomfortable near me.” Tony shrugged. It wasn’t nice, mostly, but he was used to the relative solitude. It was still strange to him that octomers were supposed to be a solitary species, and yet all he really found himself wanting was someone to stay with him.

By the time Katya came by to check up on them - they’d all agreed to stay in the hut to make sure not to interfere too much with daily life in the seahorse mer settlement - they had plans worked out for the future, including the decision that Nikos would prefer to risk the longer journey to Tony’s home if he couldn’t stay here.

“It shouldn’t be a problem.” Fortunately, he was welcome to stay in the settlement instead. “Though we would have to see about moving you in with someone who could look out for you - there’s some mers around who don’t mind looking after others, though, and there are a few I know that don’t have anyone to take care of at this very moment. I will ask around, alright?”

All of them mutually agreed to stay until they knew Nikos was settled in well. All four of them had enough skills to offer that it wasn’t a problem at all to the rest of the settlement, who were grateful for their strength and speed. During their time in the village, Bucky and Wanda helped out a lot with repairing some of the huts and even digging out a few new ones. Pietro was very popular for his hunting skills, his speed as well as the fact that he was a mershark making him capable of catching just about anything they pointed him towards. Tony, while capable of helping out in a variety of ways, focused mostly on repairing or improving upon the crafts they had lying around. On his second day, he had an entire following of curious young seahorse mers that were eager to learn anything he could teach them.

By the third day, Nikos had been settled in with a lovely seahorse mer called Mira, who was a little older herself but still very lively. She ended up telling them Stefan was actually her nephew, thanking them for bringing him home, and making all of them blush at her various compliments.

They left on the morning of the fourth day, many of the mers from the settlement coming to see them off. Tony grinned at the little ones swarming around him, still asking questions. He loved how none of them were at all afraid of him, or wary. When he looked up, he realized Bucky was watching him with a soft smile.

Blushing, he focused back on the young ones. “Never stop trying to learn, really. It’s one of the best things ever.” Dozens of small heads nodded eagerly, making him smile. He honestly hoped they’d never lose their curiosity, even though he knew a lot of them probably would.

Even Stefan, his pregnancy now fairly obvious, had come to see them off with Emiliya by his side. “Thank you, again, for what you have done for us,” she told them. “I do not think we’ll ever be able to thank you enough for bringing Stefan and our little ones home.” Their tails were wrapped tightly together, and Tony could imagine that she never wanted to let him go again.

“There’s no need to, really,” he told the both of them, smiling. “It’s just great to see the two of you back together and happy. I hope the little ones will be healthy as well.”

After more goodbyes, and with what seemed like the entire settlement waving them off, they finally set out west in order to get home. He couldn’t wait to be back in his cave, even knowing there would be nightmares waiting for him at first.

It didn’t take them long to set a steady pace. Wanda, though she had powers, was otherwise the slowest of them. Pietro didn’t have a problem pulling her along with him, though, which left Tony and Bucky to be the ones deciding the speed. Eager to get home and finally more rested, they didn’t care to go too slowly, only making sure they had enough energy left to find or make a safe place to sleep during the dark. Any hunting, they did while they were on the move, working together to make sure everyone had enough.

Tony, worried about waking the others up with nightmares, spent most of his nights only half-asleep, alert to any suspicious sounds. He knew the others had nightmares as well - neither Pietro nor Wanda could be silent when having a nightmare, and Tony had seen Bucky jolt up silently on multiple nights, though he never let on to the others. Still, he couldn’t fall asleep fully, not while they were still away from home.

Unfortunately, that did make him more tired during the days, and he knew at least Bucky was picking up on it. They were over halfway there when the other swam up to him, a frown on his face again. Really, he looked better with a smile.

“Are you alright?” Bucky asked him, even though it was clear from his voice he knew very well something wasn’t right.

“I’m fine,” Tony told him, shrugging. It wasn’t going to get better, and he didn’t want to bother the others when there really wasn’t anything they could do about it anyway. “Excited to be home, though.”

He hadn’t really expected Bucky to let it go that easily, though. Not with the way the other mer looked at him sometimes, although Tony found himself unable to define it beyond ‘questioning’. He wasn’t sure he wanted to define it more, either, considering how it made his stomach twist uncomfortably sometimes.

“You’ve been tired, lately. More, the longer we’ve been travelling,” Bucky told him. “Are you sleeping?”

Ah, well. It wasn’t like it really mattered, one way or the other. They’d be home soon, where they’d all go their separate ways eventually. “Superficially. I haven’t been able to sleep too deeply - never have during travel.” And it didn’t help that he was no longer as exhausted as he’d been after their captivity, either, considering that had kept the nightmares away for a while. “I’ll sleep once I’m home again.”

Honestly, he didn’t understand the worry he could see on Bucky, and now Pietro and Wanda as well. “Is there anything we can do? Some kind of guard rotation, maybe?” Bucky asked him, sounding like he meant it, too.

“Don’t worry too much.” Tony was astonished. “It’s just being away from home, and being worried about nightmares. You all need as much rest as you can get.”

“So do you, though,” Pietro stated, swimming closer to the two of them now.

Even Wanda, who was usually hesitant to speak up, decided to give her input. “You have been looking very tired. Are you sure there is nothing we can do to help? I mean, I know I would be willing to, if it would help you, after everything you have already done for us…”

“It’s really nothing to worry about,” Tony told them. “I can keep up fine. I won’t hold you back, I promise.”

“Yeah, not really what we were worrying about,” Bucky deadpanned, looking at him like he was an idiot, which, rude. Tony was brilliant, thank you very much. Just maybe, as Pepper had mentioned, not so much with social interaction.

“Look, the thing is, if I go to sleep now, I’ll have nightmares. That’s going to keep all of us up, instead of just me. So really, it’s better for everyone to just let it go, okay?” he suggested. Anything to get away from the uncomfortable subject and on to just getting home, where he didn’t have to worry about waking up anyone but Jarvis, who wasn’t really capable of sleeping anyway.

The others were silent for a bit after that, and Tony briefly had hope that they’d let the subject be. He should’ve known it was too much to hope for, though. “I am sorry,” Wanda told him, which, what?

It wasn’t something he had to say often, but this time he honestly had no clue. “I don’t understand?”

“I…” She blushed, looking away for a bit before swallowing and looking back at him with determination. “The nightmares are because of being held captive, am I right? So you have nightmares because you came to help us. And I am sorry about that, though I am also very grateful that you came to help us.”

“Oh, no,” Tony frantically told her, eyes wide. “Please, don’t feel bad about that. It’s really not your fault, and it’s more than worth it, really. I can deal with it, I promise.”

He stilled when there was a warm hand on his arm. Despite wanting it, he really wasn’t used to being touched by others. Hardly breathing, he turned to face Bucky. “We know you can. Same way all of us are dealing with it. Doesn’t mean we can’t want to help, though, and it definitely doesn’t mean that… You chose to come help us, even though it got you captured and hurt. We know that was your choice, but we also really appreciate it and we want to be able to help you. You get that, right?”

Not… really. His bond with Jarvis was a rather unique one, and even though he had become friends with Pepper and Rhodey after helping the two of them, both of them were distant in some ways. It was difficult to define, but they both viewed him as someone strong and independent, even solitary, when yes, he could be, but he didn’t always want to be. Bucky, and Pietro and Wanda with him, seemed to look at him differently than others had.

Bucky seemed to be able to read as much from his face, because a wry grin appeared on his own face. “Guess not. We’ll have to work on that, then.”

That night, when they settled down to rest, Tony was astonished to find all three of the others snuggling up on him from all sides, his tentacles moving up to encircle them automatically even as his mind descended into chaos. Even Pepper and Rhodey kept their distance from him, however much he knew they cared - a hand on his arm or shoulder here, or maybe a brief hug if he was really lucky and they were really worried, but never… this.

It was warm, though, and more comfortable than he’d dared to expect. Before he quite figured out what was happening, he drifted off into actual sleep. No nightmares bothered him that night, actually, and despite his exhaustion, he felt better than he had in a long while when he woke up in the morning, all three of them still wrapped in his tentacles and with their arms around him.

For a few moments, he allowed himself to enjoy the feeling of warmth. Wherever he was touching the others, it was almost like his skin was tingling pleasantly with sensation.

He realized, as he looked at the way they were all breathing peacefully, that it didn’t seem like any of them had had any nightmares. Of course, he might have been tired enough to sleep right through them, but considering the fact that he had his tentacles wrapped around them, he didn’t think he would have missed any movements they made. Perhaps this had helped them, as well.

Just as he smiled at the thought, Bucky’s eyes fluttered open, meeting his own immediately. They were closer than they had ever been before, and Tony couldn’t help the flush that moved up his humanoid skin, almost enough to match the red of his tentacles.

With a shy smile, he slowly pulled his tentacles away, which ended up waking Pietro and Wanda as well. Both of them blinked, looking around sleepily, before smiling at everyone else. It was enough to confirm Tony’s suspicion that none of them had been having any bad dreams this past night.

“Did you sleep well?” Bucky asked him, voice still rough with sleep.

Tony couldn’t quite help the surprise in his own voice. “I did, actually.” Physically, he could use a few more nights of good sleep, but mentally he felt amazing. “Thank you all.”

“No need to thank us,” Pietro told him with a grin. “I slept better tonight than I have since… well, since before our parents were taken.”

“Me, too,” Wanda admitted. “Maybe it was being together, but it felt… safer, somehow.”

That, at least, was impossible to deny. “Agreed. And still, thank you. I didn’t know…” it could be so nice to be touching others. He wondered, silently, if it would have always been this way, if other octomers simply didn’t know this, or whether he was so different from the rest of them that it only felt good to him.

For the rest of the day, he found himself unable to resist giving little touches to the others, just to feel their presence. None of them seemed to mind - in fact, they returned the affection easily, hugging him and touching him more than they had before. Wanda even asked him if he could pull her along for a bit while Pietro hunted some fish, and Tony gladly obliged. Every touch they gave him, it felt like he had more energy than before, warming him up from the inside.

Bit by bit, the waters around them changed as they swam further into the Atlantic ocean, and the familiarity of it soothed something inside Tony as well. It seemed to do the same for Bucky, who smiled a bit more freely the further they got away from HYDRA.

Pietro and Wanda admitted they had never been this far out - they had mostly stuck close to Europe with their parents, but they were clearly enjoying the new surroundings. It might be that Tony was a bit partial, but it seemed to him that the Atlantic waters were lighter than the European seas.

“Hey, I actually know this place,” Bucky told them, pointing at a rock formation some ways out. “I’ve explored here, before.”

“That means that we are close to your home?” Pietro asked him, appearing excited.

Bucky chuckled, which again made Tony’s stomach swoop. It really needed to stop doing that. “Well, it’s a bit of a swim, still - I’ve always liked to explore away from home, along with my friend. But now I can actually show you some interesting places, or even a few interesting shipwrecks.”

“That would be lovely,” Wanda told him with a smile, though still less exuberant than her brother.

“Though for now, I think you’ll want to get Tony home as quickly as possible?” Bucky asked, and Tony let out a very small sigh when the other mer frowned again. He looked better when smiling.

“Yes, please. Once we know… more, however, we would love for you to show us some more of your home and everything around it.” Despite his worry about his parents, Pietro still managed a slight smile. “I will admit I already like the Atlantic ocean.”

As the four of them swam on, Bucky pointed out places he had explored, often with funny stories about himself and Steve. It was the first time Tony actually heard more about the mer who had started all of this, and he enjoyed the way Bucky laughed as he told them about all of the things that went wrong whenever the two of them headed out together. What he liked even more was the way it told him more about Bucky, as well, though that didn’t help the problem of his unsettled stomach any.

He eagerly kept asking questions, wanting to keep Bucky talking the way he was - all happy and carefree, instead of the more withdrawn, assessing way he had been with HYDRA. It was clear from his stories that he was the more stable influence between himself and Steve, though Tony didn’t have any illusions. Reading between the lines, it was Bucky’s curiosity that most often had them going out to explore (and really, did the mer have to be perfect?). He couldn’t wait to show the mer his own cave, perhaps even opening up the bigger entrance to his inner cave that allowed Pepper and Rhodey to go in to feed Jarvis. If anyone could appreciate everything he had gathered there, he guessed it would be Bucky.

“Do you not have any stories to tell?” Pietro ended up asking him, once it had become clear that Tony was familiar with the surroundings as well.

Shrugging awkwardly, he looked away from them. “I’ve explored a bit, but I don’t really have any interesting stories. I spend a lot of time in my cave,” he told them. Not to mention that he tended to make sure not to run into other mers when he wasn’t in safe surroundings, hiding away when he sensed anyone approaching. It was entirely possible he’d avoided Bucky himself a few times, before.

“I am really curious about your cave,” Wanda told him with a gentle smile, as though to comfort him, and he couldn’t help but smile back at her.

“It’s not really the typical mercave, let me warn all of you,” he jokingly told them.

Beside him, Bucky chuckled as he put a warm hand on his arm, and Tony relished the tingly feeling that spread through him. “I wouldn’t have expected anything else, with how unique you are.” It could have been a joke, or a flippant statement, but there was a deeper tone to his voice that had Tony blushing the color of his tentacles. They twitched, tempted to come up to shield him from sight, but he forcefully made sure they didn’t. Bucky made him blush, he could witness what he had done.

Predictably, he did not look regretful in the least. Instead, he just grinned even wider, light eyes sparkling with fond amusement. Tony pouted and looked away, only to meet the two grinning faces of Pietro and Wanda instead. He huffed. “All against me, I swear.”

“And of course, you hate it,” Pietro joked, grin not lessening in the least.

“Of course,” he nodded. “I feel oppressed, I tell you. Oppressed and ridiculed and - ”

A sudden arm around him made him trail off, before turning back to Bucky. Touch distracted him a lot, and he still wasn’t sure if that was good or bad - it sure felt good, but he could also imagine it would be very, very impractical in some situations. Perhaps mers got used to it? Bucky didn’t seem to have too much of a problem with it, anyway, nor did Pietro or Wanda.

“Aww, doll, you know we like you, really.” And yeah, that completely derailed all possibility of thinking properly. How, in all of the seas and oceans, was he supposed to be rational when Bucky said stuff like that?

He coughed, trying to find his voice again. “Sure you do.” Rather than sounding huffy, as he’d intended, it sounded rather more insecure than he would have liked it to.

In response, all three of them swam closer to him, pressing against him and making him feel all warm and comfortable. Oh, why had he never known this? “We do like you. And not just because you saved us, but because you are nice and funny and smart,” Pietro asserted, sounding almost as though he was challenging Tony.

“And attractive,” Bucky added, unashamed, and Tony let out a soft ‘eep’ as he blushed even brighter.

Both Pietro and Wanda laughed, though they didn’t let go. “Well, not to me,” Pietro joked, “but I can see why you would think so. His blush is very nice.”

Tony kind of wanted to sink into the ground. He hadn’t thought he was easy to embarrass, but this was absolutely terrible. Despite his efforts, a few of his tentacles were coming up to cover him, automatically defensive.

“Hey, doll?” Bucky asked him, suddenly looking at him intently. Tony froze, unable to look away. “You’ll tell us when we go too far, right? It’s supposed to be fun, we don’t want to be bothering you if it makes you uncomfortable.”

Taking a deep breath, Tony forced himself to relax. “I know, it’s just… I’m really not used to this. Rhodey and I joke sometimes, and there’s Jarvis, but it’s not like this, and I’m just not sure how to react. And then there’s the touching, and that’s nice but it also makes me feel all… I don’t know, jittery inside, and it’s all just a bit strange, and I know we’re gonna split up soon and it’s gonna be over again and I want to enjoy it while it lasts but I’m also not entirely sure what to do with it and…” His hand came up to cover his mouth, aware that he’d been rambling. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Bucky told him, infinitely gentle and smiling softly. “And I’d be perfectly willing to hug you every day from now on, if you want.”

Before he could ask what that was supposed to mean, Wanda spoke up. “For the record, I would like to say we’re also very willing to hug you. But I think this is a conversation that needs to be between the two of you, so feel free to swim ahead so we can follow at a distance.”

They both smiled, falling back and allowing the two of them to swim ahead, and Tony turned questioning eyes to Bucky. “I’m… not sure what this means? Are…”

He really wasn’t sure. Of course, he knew what he hoped it meant, but it seemed rather unlikely (and part of him feared that, even if it was, it was just because he had helped save them and this was some sort of instinctive response to that, instead of genuine feelings). Bucky must have far better prospects waiting for him at home, after all.

“This means that I like you. A lot.” Well, at least Bucky was direct about things. “And I know I have no idea what’s gonna happen when we get back home, or if you even want to see me again then - if you even want to see me again, now - but I do know that I want to see what can happen, if you’re okay with that. Because I honestly think you’re amazing, and I’d be honored if you’d join me in going to the coral reefs sometime.”

Tony was stunned. The coral reefs… He knew, theoretically, that was where the mers took the ones they intended to court. In the past, he’d even seen them from a distance, colorful and beautiful and not for him. Because he was an octomer, and they were solitary creatures that didn’t need things like mates and touching.

“I…” As much as he wanted to say yes, he couldn’t help but doubt. “Are you sure this isn’t just because of… well, what just happened? With the whole kidnapped thing? Because I’d get that, honestly, but I’m really not the easiest person to be close to, not in daily life. I get distracted a lot, and sometimes I go off on a tangent and then I keep rambling, and I talk to myself a lot, and I forget to eat sometimes, and…” He trailed off. There were probably more things, but he couldn’t think of any of them right now. It was made even more difficult by the fact that he wanted, but he also knew he shouldn’t.

There was understanding in Bucky’s face, and he hadn’t pushed Tony away yet. “I’m not saying we mate instantly. I know there’s plenty we don’t know about each other still. I’m just saying that I’d like to find out things about you, and have you find out things about me, and…. I honestly don’t think my feelings will change that quickly - you’re the first mer I’ve ever really been interested in.”

Realistically, it could happen, of course. Tony knew that. Most likely, Bucky knew that as well. But he wanted to try, still, and Tony found that he rather wanted to explore this feeling as well.

“If you’re really sure?” Tony wasn’t. Not really. He thought Bucky would most likely leave eventually, get tired of him and realize that there were better options out there than Tony, of all mers. Maybe, though, he could enjoy this as long as it lasted?

“I know what I want. I want to get to know you, and take you to the reef, and introduce you to all of my weird friends and have you introduce me to yours, and…” Now it was Bucky’s turn to trail off and blush, and Tony was delighted at the way it looked on him. Oh yes, this was something he was very willing to see more of. “I know it’s soon, but I have thought about mer mating habits and wondering about octomer mating habits, and I don’t know a lot and that’s really not something I should be talking about already, why did I even start this sentence?”

Bucky groaned in mortification, but Tony could feel the happiness growing inside him. “You really want to try this,” he said softly, wonder in his voice, which pulled Bucky out of his mental self-flagellating quickly.

“I really do,” he confirmed, sounding just as sure as he had before. Except now, Tony actually allowed himself to believe it.

Hesitantly, he stretched out a few of his tentacles, wrapping them around Bucky. The mer let himself be pulled in easily, a smile on his face, and brought his arms up to wrap them around Tony. “I would like that, too,” he admitted. It wasn’t something he’d ever expected, and he wasn’t sure it would end the way both of them hoped it would, but he knew he was willing to try for it. For Bucky. For them.

“Good.” Bucky smiled, pulling him even closer. While they’d been swimming as they talked before, they were now floating as they looked at one another. “Then… may I kiss you?”

It was another thing Tony had never experienced before, and trepidation warred with excitement. “I’ve never… I want to, but I’ve never kissed anyone before,” he told Bucky shyly, hoping it wouldn’t be too much of a problem for the other mer.

“Don’t worry.” The look on Bucky’s face hadn’t changed - if anything, it had grown softer, fonder. “Just… feel.”

Then his lips were on Tony’s, soft and warm, and he melted into Bucky. It felt like small electric shocks all over his body, and he wanted more of it, his tentacles pulling the other mer as close as possible and still not feeling close enough.

When Bucky finally pulled back, it felt like it had been forever and still not long enough. Both of them were flushed, breathing heavily, and Tony could feel happiness growing inside of him. Bucky grinned back at him, eyes darker and more intense, though Tony could still see the affection shining in them.

Yeah. It might not work out, but Bucky was definitely worth trying for.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. My [Tumblr](https://eirlyssa.tumblr.com/) actually has some pictures as well, for an idea of how everyone looks. Feel free to come and check them out!


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